Florida Democrats on defense amid election fraud investigation

TALLAHASSEE — After getting crushed in the 2018 midterms, the Florida Democratic Party is now playing defense after staffers sent altered state election documents to voters, a move state officials have asked federal prosecutors to investigate.

The issue arose after state party staff sent voters forms that are intended to fix vote-by-mail ballots that had been initially rejected. Those forms, which are official state documents, were sent with altered dates, leading the Florida Department of State to turn over the paperwork to several U.S. attorneys and request an inquiry into the “irregularities.”

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After saying earlier in the week that the state officials were trying “divert attention” away from the Department of State, which is part of Gov. Rick Scott’s administration, the Democrats on Friday took a different approach: They lawyered up.

“Upon receiving notice of the allegations that the form was incorrect, FDP took immediate steps, including hiring an independent investigator to review the issues at hand,” attorney Mark Herron said in a statement provided by a party spokeswoman. “As soon as we know the results of the investigation we will advise you.”

Herron went to CNN to break the news Friday morning, one week after the vote-by-mail “cure affidavits” were sent to U.S. Attorneys Christopher P. Canova of the Northern District of Florida, Maria Chapa Lopez of the Middle District of Florida and Ariana Fajardo Orshan of the Southern District of Florida.

Information related to whose mail ballots were rejected is public information. It’s not uncommon for political parties or outside groups to use that information to reach out to voters who had a mail ballot rejected to encourage them to fix the issues. In most cases, the problem is because a voter did not sign the ballot.

To cure a mail-in ballot, voters needed to submit an affidavit on Nov. 5, the day before Election Day. But the altered version changed the date to Nov. 8, the deadline to cure issues with provisional ballots. It's unclear if any voters availed themselves of the altered affidavit produced by party operatives.

Under state law governing “fraudulent practices,” it’s a third-degree felony to “knowingly and willfully ... make or use any false document, knowing the same to contain any false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry” connected to the Department of State. While the fraud statute is not contained in the state’s election code, it relates to the 2018 election because the affidavit in question concerned the elections division, which falls under the Department of State.

The case was referred to investigators at the urging of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and Scott, both of whom raised concerns about fraud in the election. Their suspicions, however, revolved around tens of thousands of ballots that had been cast in Broward County and, to date, the elections division, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and a judge all say they’ve seen no credible evidence of fraud.

The federal law that the state’s elections division referred to federal prosecutors, however, concerns depriving a person of rights and is usually used in voter suppression cases. In the case at hand, no voter was suppressed or kept from the polls. Instead, operatives appear to have sought to game the system to get more voters’ ballots to count after they had cast them.

The Naples Daily News reported Wednesday that at least several staffers at the Florida Democratic Party were aware of the altered documents. Jake Sanders, a Democratic staffer, told the newspaper that he had warned those above him that there could be legal problems as a result of using the altered state election documents.

“They should have been saying, ‘this is unprecedented, we are fighting for your vote to count, fill this out so we can fight for you,‘” he told the Daily News. “But self-imposing a fake deadline and deceiving people is counter to that.”

The issue was discussed in a number of internal party emails that have since become public, including one from Democratic staffer Jennifer Kim, who explained “the voters must print the form and sign it by hand.”

After sending the statement from Heron Friday, Caroline Rowland, the party’s communication director, did not respond to questions about whether Kim had been fired.

Democratic Party Vice Chairman Alan Clendenin, who lost a bitter chairmanship fight to the party's current chairwoman, Terrie Rizzo, said that top party leaders — including Rizzo and Executive Director Juan Peñalos — were not involved in the decision to alter the documents.

“It was mid-level and it was a bunch of go-getters and young people who wanted to make a difference and didn’t realize this is a major political party and this is not how you get things done,” Clendenin said in an interview.

The use of altered documents to reach out to voters whose mail ballots were initially rejected is the cherry on top of a disastrous election cycle for Florida Democrats. The difference between the midterm performance of Democrats nationally and in Florida is stark.

Across the country, a blue wave helped Democrats retake the House of Representatives, fare much better in Senate elections than expected, and flip seven governor’s mansions and six state legislatures.

In Florida, Republicans won the governor’s race, are leading in the U.S .Senate race, which is currently under a manual recount, and lost all but one targeted state Senate race.

The Democratic Party retains very little political power at the state government level. If Democrat U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson loses the recount and is defeated by Scott, the only Democrat holding statewide office would likely be Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who is also facing a manual recount but is leading the race.